We woke up to a beautiful, sunny morning in Eden, Utah. We were very happy to have passed an uneventful night. The trailhead where we spent the night was not intended to be a camping area and we were a little worried about being asked to leave, The joggers, hikers, and dog walkers we saw seemed very unconcerned about our presence there. We ate a quick breakfast then drove the short distance to Eden Coffee & Cocoa.

The coffee shop owner, Jade, was very friendly and happy to make us a couple of half-caff Americanos. We were lucky to find a spot to sit outside that had shade and power outlets for our computers. It turned out to be a good thing that we had found a comfortable spot because we ended up spending a good portion of the day there.I took the opportunity to catch up on my assignments for an online class I am taking to learn more about online teaching. Francis ran into some snags with a project ( Crowd Update app) he was working on so he needed some time to get it figured out. Conveniently, there was a grocery store right beside the coffee shop so I was able to grab some lunch for us. We finally wrapped up right as the coffee shop was closing. We only realized it was so late because the barista came outside to put the day’s trash in the dumpster.

With so much of the day gone, we decided to spend the night at the same spot. It was free, had an outhouse, and a pretty view so we figured why not. We took a walk along the lake, ate some dinner and spent the evening relaxing in the truck.  Even though we lack some of the modern conveniences, the experiences and freedom more than make up for it.